Senator Jeremiah Kpan Koung is the Vice Standard Bearer/Running Mate to Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai, former Vice President of Liberia and Standard Bearer of the Unity Party for the 2023 Presidential Election.

The Nimba County Senator sees his preferment as running mate to Ambassador Boakai purely as “an act of destiny.” He was elected to a nine-year term during the Special Senatorial Election held in December of 2020. His selection by the Standard Bearer of the Unity Party as running mate bridges the gap between the young and old. Both generations consider Senator Koung an embodiment of hope – both symbolic and in fact – for the mainly destitute young people of Liberia, many of whom, with little or no opportunity, now find themselves heavily entrenched in the informal sector of the economy, an area Senator Koung particularly identifies with, and is a background that has shaped much of the success story of his life.

Born on March 17, 1978, in Yekepa, Nimba County, to Mr. Adam Sunday Koung and Mrs. Esther Markar Koung. His father, Adam migrated to Nimba from Sinoe County in the early 1960s in search of a job with the Liberian American – Swedish Minerals Company (LAMCO), and his mother, Ma. Esther is a native of Nimba. His family lineage stretches from Nimba to the Southeastern region of Liberia, with a good number of his childhood years spent in Grand Bassa County. Sen. Koung’s humble beginning should be familiar to every child who struggled to escape stagnation and poverty in the throes of the Liberian civil conflict. 

At age 12, and at the height of the civil disruptions, young Koung started living on his own, and many times slept under a canoe along the beaches of the sea coast seeking refuge from terror at night. Those beaches that provided shelter would later spur his passion for business, which to date is arguably his most enduring legacy in society.  Young Koung’s initial exposure to business came from Providence and can be traced to a fisherman who favored him by letting him take a foothold in fishmongering. For more than three years, young Koung sold fish and saved money for himself. Later, the startup evolved into retailing distilled products of sugarcane juice in markets in Guinea. His engagements in cross-border trade as a young man saw him risk life and limb, as he was caught in the crosshairs of the Liberian civil war. Yet, throughout the war, young Koung never became a combatant, and never held or fired guns. At the end of the civil conflict, and with peace reigning, Koung saw an opportunity to expand his business by adding the sale and transportation of petroleum products, importation of used cars from the United States and Europe, sale of general merchandise, building materials, frozen food, a micro loans scheme, real estate ventures, and many more. The tenacity to hold onto his dream of becoming a successful businessman despite the odds stacked against him made young Koung persevere and resilient. Today, he is one of the most prominent and successful Liberian businessmen in Nimba County, owning a string of businesses that have added to the rapidly evolving commercial metropole of Gompa City in Nimba County – all this done through the sweat of his brow. Koung also served as Credit Manager for the Ganta United Brother’s Credit Union (GUBC), then one of the largest loan institutions in Ganta, Nimba County, Republic of Liberia. 

Having realized that an elected office would increase the opportunity to serve the people by giving back to his country and community, Koung vied for a legislative seat in the House of Representatives during the 2011 Legislative and Presidential Elections for the Gompa municipality of Electoral District One, which he won, serving one and a half terms (9 years). Later, in 2020 Koung would participate in the 2020 Special Senatorial Election and win to clinch another nine-year term in the Liberian Senate.

Adding a feather to his political hat, Senator Koung got elected as Political Leader of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), during a special convention in 2023. The MDR garnered 8.2 % of the total votes cast in the 2017 Presidential Elections, finishing fourth. The party has a very solid base in Nimba County, a history of pulling the second-largest number of votes in post-war presidential election cycles, and is known for its rapid economic and infrastructure development.